COL.  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  FLOWERS 
MEMORIAL  COLLECTION 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
DURHAM,  N.  C. 


PRESENTED  BY 

W.  W.  FLOWERS 


OBITUARIES,  FUNERAL 

i 


AND 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BAR 


IN  MEMORY  OF  THE  LATE 


HON.  WM.  H.  BATTLE. 

I$0  %  "  ? 9 


RALEIGH,  N.  0.: 
UZZELL  &  WILEY,  PRINTERS  AND  BINDERS. 
1879. 


IN  MEMORIAM 


HON.  WM.  H.  BATTLE. 


|  From  the  Kaleigh  Observer  of  March  15th,  1879.) 

DEATH  OF  JUDGE  BATTLE. 


One  of  the  truly  good  men  of  North  Carolina  died  at  Chapel 
Hill  yesterday,  full  of  years  and  full  of  honors.  In  the  death 
of  Judge  Battle,  which  event  occurred  at  one  o'clock  yesterday, 
the  State  sustained  the  loss  of  one  of  her  sons  than  whom  no 
purer  in  character  has  lived  or  died  in  any  age. 

William  Horn  Battle  was  born  in  the  county  of  Edgecombe, 
on  the  17th  day  of  October,  1802,  and  was  consequently  in  the 
seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age  at  the  time  of  his  death.  He 
was  the  eldest  of  six  sons  of  Joel  Battle,  one  of  the  earliest  cotton 
manufacturers  of  the  State;  and  the  Rocky  Mount  Mills,  at  the 
Falls  of  Tar  River,  are  still  in  operation  under  the  management 
and  ownership  of  a  member  of  the  Battle  family.  The  paternal 
ancestor  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch  came  from  Virginia,  and 
his  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Amos  Johnston,  of  Edgecombe. 
He  was  descended  on  both  sides  from  Revolutionary  stock,  and 
his  forefathers  and  their  descendants  have  always  been  among 
the  foremost  people  of  Edgecombe. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  William  H.  Battle  entered  the  Univer- 
sity at  Chapel  Hill,  and  in  two  years  graduated,  having  the  honor 
of  delivering  the  valedictory  oration,  then  a  prize  of  the  second 
scholar  in  the  class,  in  which  was  the  late  Bishop  Otey  of  Tennes- 
see, the  late  Hon.  B.  F.  Moore,  and  the  venerable  William  Hill 


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Hardin,  late  of  Fayetteville,  and  now  of  Raleigh,  and  the  only 
surviving  member  of  the  class.  It  is  not  yet  two  years  since  Judge 
Battle,  Mr.  Moore,  and  Mr.  Hardin  met  together  in  this  city,  the 
then  surviving  members  of  the  class  of  1820. 

On  leaving  the  University,  Mr.  Battle  entered  the  office  of 
Chief  Justice  Henderson,  where  he  prepared  himself  for  the 
Bar,  reading  for  more  than  three  years,  during  which  time  he 
acted  as  amanuensis  for  that  distinguished  jurist ;  and  so  proficient 
was  this  young  student  of  law  found  at  the  time  of  his  examina- 
tion for  County  Court  license  that  the  Supreme  Court  departed 
from  an  established  rule,  and  granted  him  both  County  and  Supe- 
rior Court  license  at  the  same  time. 

On  the  first  of  June,  1825,  he  married  Miss  Lucy  M. 
Plummer,  daughter  of  Kemp  Plummer,  Esq.,  a  distinguished 
lawyer  of  Warrenton,  and  in  January,  1827,  settled  for  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession  at  Louisburg.  The  early  years  of  his  profes- 
sional life  were  not  full  of  promise,  and  it  was  always  his  pleas- 
ure, and  with  becoming  pride,  to  attribute  the  success  of  his  life 
to  the  encouraging  influences  and  superior  character  of  his  wife 
He  represented  Franklin  county  in  the  House  of  Commons  in 
1833-734,  and  associated  with  Thomas  P.  Devereux,  Esq.,  re- 
ported the  Supreme  Court  decisions  from  December,  1834,  to 
December,  1839,  inclusive.  In  1835  he  was  associated  with 
Governor  Iredell  and  Judge  Nash  in  preparing  the  Revised  Stat- 
utes of  North  Carolina,  and  personally  superintended  the  printing 
of  that  work  in  Boston.  He  removed  to  Raleigh  in  1839,  and 
the  same  year  was  a  delegate  to  the  convention  which  nominated 
William  Henry  Harrison  for  President  of  the  United  States. 
In  politics  he  was  a  Whig,  but  he  was  never  a  partisan,  and  his 
career  as  a  politician  ended  with  his  elevation  to  the  judiciary. 

Upon  the  resignation  of  Judge  Toomer,  in  August,  1840, 
William  H.  Battle  was  appointed  by  Governor  Dudley,  and  in 
the  following  winter  elected  by  the  Legislature,  one  of  the  Judges 
of  the  Superior  Court  of  North  Carolina.  In  1843  Judge 
Battle  removed  to  Chapel  Hill  to  superintend  the  collegiate  edu- 
cation of  his  sons,  and  in  1845  he  was  elected  by  the  Trustees  to 
the  Professorship  of  Law,  without  any  regular  salary,  however. 


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attaching  to  the  position,  and  he  being  charged  with  no  part  of 
the  government  of  the  institution.  This  position  he  continued 
to  occupy  until  the  University  went  down  in  1868,  subsequently 
to  which  he  abandoned  his  law  school  at  Chapel  Hill,  and  came 
to  Raleigh  to  associate  in  the  practice  of  the  law  with  his  sons, 
Hon.  Kemp  P.  and  R.  H.  Battle,  Jr. 

On  the  death  of  Hon.  Joseph  J.  Daniel,  Governor  Graham,  in 
May,  1848,  appointed  Judge  Battle  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
in  his  place,  but  the  appointment  was  not  confirmed  by  the  Leg- 
islature ;  although  by  the  same  body  and  within  a  very  few  days 
he  was,  without  opposition,  elected  a  Superior  Court  Judge,  to  fill 
the  vacancy  created  by  the  resignation  of  Hon.  Augustus  Moore. 
He  was  the  choice  of  both  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  and 
members  united  in  a  letter  to  him  requesting  his  acceptance  of  a 
judicial  office  tendered  without  distinction  of  party,  and  that 
he  might  deem  it  no  reflection  to  have  failed  of  confirmation  for 
the  bench  of  the  higher  court,  they  said : — "  The  preference  of  an- 
other to  you  for  a  still  higher  judicial  station,  was  owing  princi- 
pally to  your  residing  in  a  county  where  there  are  already  three 
Judges,  a  Governor,  and  a  Senator  in  Congress."  This  letter 
bears  date  January  9,  1849,  and  Judge  Battle  had  that  day  ar- 
rived in  Raleigh  to  argue  a  case  before  the  Supreme  Court. 
Urged  by  Chief  Justice  Ruffin,  as  well  as  the  members  of  the 
Legislature,  to  accept  the  position,  he  did  so,  and  again  went  on 
the  Superior  Court  Bench,  from  which  he  was  called  to  the  Su- 
preme Bench  in  1852,  and  continued  to  preside  as  an  Associate 
Justice  of  that  court  until  the  inauguration  of  the  Reconstructed 
State  government  in  July,  1868. 

The  Legislature  of  1872-'73  selected  Judge  Battle  to  again  re- 
vise the  statutes  of  North  Carolina,  under  the  title  of  Battle's 
Revisal,  and  while  it  was  a  conspicuous  honor  thus  conferred,  it 
was  an  act  of  injustice  to  devolve  such  a  labor  upon  one  man, 
and  such  criticisms  as  may  have  been  indulged  on  the  work  might 
well  have  been  spared  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  wTas  the  labor 
of  one  mind.  His  peculiar  fitness  for  the  revision  of  our  statute 
laws  was  made  manifest  in  the  Revised  Statutes  of  1838,  and  if 
the  General  Assembly  had  seen  fit  to  give  Judge  Battle  associate 


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commissioners,  Battle's  Revisal  would,  instead  of  unjust  criticism 
in  some  quarters,  have  received  the  commendation  which  the  Re- 
vised Statutes  and  Revised  Code  met  with  at  the  hands  of  the 
Bar.  As  it  is,  it  is  by  no  means  an  inferior  work  to  the  revisions 
of  other  States,  but  North  Carolina  having  been  accustomed  to 
the  superior  revisions  of  Iredell,  Nash  and  Battle,  in  which  the 
latter  performed  the  principal  labor,  and  the  Code  of  Biggs, 
Moore  and  Rodman,  it  is  not  at  all  remarkable  that  the  work  of 
one  unaided  mind  should  fail  to  come  up  to  the  high  standard  of 
that  of  three  such  superior  legal  minds  as  were  employed  on  each 
of  the  two  previous  revisions.  During  the  last  year  of  Judge 
Battle's  residence  in  this  city  he  was  President  of  the  Raleigh 
National  Bank.  In  the  spring  of  1874  he  lost  his  wife,  and 
thus  left  alone  to  support  the  weight  of  declining  years,  the 
lonely  old  man,  leaning  upon  his  children,  made  his  home  in 
Raleigh  with  his  eldest  son,  Kemp;  and  he  followed  that  son 
back  to  Chapel  Hill  when  he  took  upon  himself  the  office  of  re- 
storing the  University,  and  in  that  home  found  all  the  compan- 
ionship, comfort  and  solace  that  earth  could  afford  him,  until 
worn  out  at  the  end  of  a  long  life-journey,  throughout  which  every 
duty  to  God  and  man  had  been  religiously  and  conscientiously 
performed,  he  fell  asleep  to  wake  in  the  presence  of  her  who 
counseled  and  guided  his  footsteps  from  the  morn  of  early  man- 
hood to  the  eve  of  an  honored  and  honorable  life. 

Judge  Battle  was  the  father  of  ten  children,  six  sons  and  two 
daughters  of  whom  reached  their  majority.  All  have  died  but 
three  sons,  Kemp,  William  and  Richard.  Two  sons,  Junius 
and  W.  Lewis,  were  slain  in  battle.  Mrs.  Van  Wyck,  and  the 
other  daughter,  Susan,  have  both  died  since  the  war.  Upon  all, 
the  character  of  the  mother,  combined  with  the  gentleness  of  the 
father,  was  deeply  impressed,  and  no  home  was  happier  in  wife 
and  children  than  that  of  Judge  Battle  throughout  his  long  life. 

He  was  a  Christian  gentleman  in  the  fullest  meaning  of  the 
term.  If  human  perfection  were  possible,  Judge  Battle  would 
have  attained  it.  " Jesus  saw  Nathanael  coming  to  Him, 
and  saith  of  him,  Behold  an  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom  is  no 
guile!" 


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For  forty  years  Judge  Battle  was  a  communicant  member  of 
the  Episcopal  Church.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Con- 
ventions of  the  Church  continuously  for  twenty-five  years,  save 
the  interruptions  of  the  war,  and  during  that  period  he  was  a 
member  of  the  General  Council  of  the  Confederate  States,  and 
attended  its  only  session,  held  at  Augusta. 

The  funeral  services  will  be  held  at  Christ  Church  on  Sunday, 
the  church  in  which  he  was  confirmed,  and  his  remains  will  re- 
pose in  Oakwood  Cemetery,  beside  those  of  his  wife. 

A  good  man  and  a  great  man  has  fallen,  for  no  man  is  great 
who  is  not  good.  Judge  Battle  was  great  in  the  goodness  and 
simplicity  of  his  character.  For  modest  excellence,  unstained 
and  unobtrusive  morality,  unwavering  courtesy,  uniform  kind- 
ness, extensive  learning,  and  a  judgment  firm  and  impartial,  he 
will  be  remembered  by  all  who  knew  him. 


(From  the  Raleigh  Observer  of  March  16th,  1879.) 

MEETING  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT  BAR. 


On  yesterday  at  one  o'clock  P.  M.,  the  following  members  of 
the  Supreme  Court  Bar  assembled  in  the  Supreme  Court  room, 
pursuant  to  a  call  of  Attorney  General  Kenan,  to  adopt  resolu- 
tions in  regard  to  the  death  of  the  Hon.  William  H.  Battle,  late 
a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  a  reporter  of  the  decisions  of 
the  Court :  Chief  Justice  W.  X.  H.  Smith,  Justice  Thomas  S. 
Ashe,  Justice  John  H.  Dillard,  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  Hon.  A.  S. 
Merrimon,  Hon.  D.  G.  Fowle,  Hon.  Geo.  V.  Strong,  Maj.  H.  A. 
Gilliam,  Attorney  General  T.  S.  Kenan,  Hon.  W.  R.  Cox,  A.  M. 
Lewis,  Esq.,  Jos.  B.  Batchelor,  Esq.,  Hon.  T.  C.  Fuller,  W.  H. 
Bagley,  Esq.,  Hon.  Montford  MeGehee,  Theo.  F.  Davidson,  Esq., 
R.  T.  Gray,  Esq.,  S.  G.  Ryan,  Esq.,  Capt.  S.  A.  Ashe,  T.  M.  Argo, 
Esq.,  Col.  Walter  Clarke,  Geo.  M.  Smedes,  Esq.,  Geo.  H.  Snow, 
Esq.,  Sam'l  F.  Mordecai,  Esq.,  Jno.  A.  Moore,  Esq.,  B.  B.  Lewis. 
Jr.,  Esq.,  Wm.  Bledsoe,  Esq.,  E.  R.  Stamps,  Esq.,  R.  B.  Peebles, 


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Esq.,  W.  C.  Bowen,  Esq.,  Jno.  W.  Hinsdale,  Esq.,  A.  W.  Hay- 
wood, Esq.,  and  Jno.  Devereux,  Jr.,  Esq. 

On  motion  of  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  Chief  Justice  W.  N.  H. 
Smith  was  called  to  the  chair. 

On  motion  of  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  John  W.  Hinsdale  and  Jno. 
Devereux,  Jr.,  Esqs.,  were  appointed  secretaries. 

On  motion  of  Hon.  A.  S.  Merrimon,  it  is 

Resolved.  That  the  members  of  the  Supreme  Court  Bar  have 
learned  with  feelings  of  deep  regret  of  the  death  of  Hon.  William 
H.  Battle. 

Upon  motion  of  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  it  is 

Resolved.  That  the  chairman  appoint  a  committee  of  eight 
members  of  the  Bar  to  meet  the  remains  at  the  depot,  and  to 
make  the  necessary  arrangements  for  the  part  to  be  taken  by  the 
Bar  in  the  funeral  and  burial  services  of  the  Hon.  William  H. 
Battle. 

Upon  motion  of  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  it  is 

Resolved.  That  the  chairman  appoint  a  committee  of  three 
members  of  the  Bar  to  prepare  resolutions,  to  be  reported  to  a 
future  meeting  of  the  Bar,  to  be  called  by  the  chairman. 

The  chair  appointed  the  following  gentlemen  upon  the  com- 
mittee to  meet  the  remains  at  the  depot:  Maj.  Henry  A.  Gilliam, 
Capt,  R.  B.  Peebles,  Hon.  M.  McGehee,  E.  R.  Stamps,  Esq., 
John  A.  Moore,  Esq.,  Maj.  R.  C.  Badger,  Jno.  W.  Hinsdale, 
Esq.,  Capt.  S.  A.  Ashe. 

Upon  the  committee  to  prepare  resolutions,  the  chair  appointed 
Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  Hon.  D.  G.  Fowle,  and  Hon.  T.  C.  Fuller. 

The  chair  announced  the  following  gentlemen  as  having  been 
selected  by  the  family  of  the  deceased  to  act  as  pall-bearers : 

Chief  Justice  W.  N.  H.  Smith,  Justice  John  H.  Dillard, 
Justice  Thomas  S.  Ashe,  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  Hon.  Geo.  V.  Strong, 
Hon.  D.  G.  Fowle,  Hon.  A.  S.  Merrimon,  Hon.  T.  S.  Kenan, 
Maj.  A.  M.  Lewis,  W.  S.  Mason,  Esq.,  Hon.  W.  R.  Cox,  and 
Hon.  Jos.  B.  Batchelor. 

Upon  motion  of  Hon.  D.  G.  Fowle,  it  is 

Resolved.  That  the  meeting  do  now  adjourn  to  re-assemble 
in  this  Chamber  at  4J  o'clock  to-morrow  afternoon,  to  hear  the 


9 


report  of  the  committee,  as  to  the  part  to  be  taken  by  the  Bar  in 
the  funeral  and  burial  services. 

W.  N.  H.  SMITH, 

Chairman. 

John  W.  Hinsdale, 
John  Devereux,  Jr., 

Secretaries. 


(  From  the  Raleigh  Observer  of  March  18th,  1879.) 

THE  FUNERAL. 


As  the  sun  came  up  out  of  the  forests  on  the  Sabbath  morning 
the  old  College  bell  tolled  its  solemn  notes,  and  the  Professors, 
students  and  subordinates  of  the  University,  and  all  the  villagers, 
assembled  in  the  Chapel  to  pay  a  last  honor  to  a  learned  teacher, 
a  useful  citizen — an  old  man  full  of  honors  and  ripe  for  his  re- 
ward. After  the  Rev.  Joseph  B.  Cheshire,  Jr.,  had  concluded  the 
services,  the  pall-bearers  chosen  from  the  Faculty  and  citizens, 
and  the  committee  of  escort,  consisting  of  five  members  from 
each  of  the  Societies,  took  up  the  sorrowful  burden  and  proceeded 
to  Durham.  On  the  outskirts  of  the  village  the  long  line  halted 
and  stood  uncovered  as  the  small  company  passed  by  and  went 
on  its  way. 

At  Durham  they  were  met  by  a  delegation  of  citizens  who 
joined  the  funeral  train  and  acted  as  a  guard  of  honor  until  the 
body  was  put  on  the  Eastern  bound  train.  Professors  Winston 
and  Grandy  of  the  Faculty,  the  Society  committees,  and  a  num- 
ber of  gentlemen  from  Durham  accompanied  the  remains  to 
Raleigh.  At  the  depot  they  were  met  by  the  following  gentle- 
men, the  committee  of  arrangements  appointed  by  the  Bar: 

Maj.  Henry  A.  Gilliam,  Capt.  R.  B.  Peebles,  Hon.  M. 
McGehee,  E.  R.  Stamps,  Esq.,  John  A.  Moore,  Esq.,  Maj.  R. 
C.  Badger,  John  W.  Hinsdale,  Esq.,  and  Capt.  S.  A.  Ashe,  who 
took  charge  of  the  body,  and  had  it  placed  in  the  rotunda  of  the 
Capitol,  where  it  lay  in  state  for  several  hours. 
2 


10 


Promptly  at  5  o'clock,  the  hour  appointed  for  the  funeral,  the 
pall-bearers,  Chief  Justice  W.  N.  H.  Smith,  Justice  Thomas  S. 
Ashe,  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  Hon.  Geo.  V.  Strong,  Hon.  D.  G. 
Fowle,  Hon.  A.  S.  Merrimon,  Hon.  T.  S.  Kenan,  Maj.  W.  H. 
Bagley,  Maj.  A.  M.  Lewis,  W.  S.  Mason,  Esq.,  Hon.  W.  R.  Cox 
and  Hon.  Jos.  B.  Batchelor,  repaired  to  the  Capitol,  and  in  the 
following  order  the  procession  moved  to  the  south  entrance  of 
Christ  Church :  The  pall-bearers,  the  committee  of  arrangements, 
the  Bar,  State  officers,  citizens  of  Chapel  Hill  and  Durham,  the 
family,  citizens.  At  the  South  entrance  the  body  was  met  by 
the  Rector,  who  preceded  it,  repeating  the  solemn  promises  of  the 
service.  The  church  was  densely  crowded  and  the  aisles  and 
galleries  were  full.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Marshall  was  assisted  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Rich,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cheshire.  After  the  echoes  of 
the  last  prayer  had  died  away  in  the  gray  old  church  where  the 
venerable  man  had  worshiped  for  many  years,  all  that  was 
left  of  him  was  carried  to  the  city  of  the  dead,  that  lies  along- 
side the  city  of  the  living.  Troops  of  friends  followed  in  car- 
riages and  on  foot,  and  the  cemetery  was  populous  with  us  of 
to-day  honoring  us  of  yesterday  They  laid  him  away  in  his 
family  lot,  by  the  side  of  her  who  made  life  almost  as  peace- 
ful and  happy  for  him  as  the  rest  to  which  God  has  called  him. 
His  life  was  gentle  and  his  death  was  peace. 


(From  the  Raleigh  Observer  of  April  3d,  1870.) 

THE  LATE  JUDGE  BATTLE. 


In  pursuance  of  a  notice  given  by  the  Chief  Justice,  there  was 
a  large  meeting  of  the  Bar  yesterday,  to  engage  in  the  ceremo- 
nies commemorative  of  the  life  and  services  of  the  late  Judge 
Battle. 

Chief  Justice  Smith  presided.  There  were  present  Mr.  Dil- 
lard  and  Mr.  Ashe,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Mr.  Kenan,  the 
Attorney  General,  Messrs.  Merrimon,  Fowle,  Reade,  Cox,  Gil- 


1 1 


Ham,  C.  M.  Busbee,  Fuller,  Ashe,  Gray,  W.  H.  Bagley,  Fab. 
H.  Busbee,  Clark,  A.  M.  Lewis,  Harris,  Stamps,  R.  G.  Lewis, 
Mason,  Pace,  Ryan,  Smedes,  Overman,  W.  P.  Batchelor,  Mon- 
tague, B.  B.  Lewis,  W.  H.  Bledsoe,  John  Devereux  and  Gudger. 

Mr.  Reade  read  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  committee  ap- 
pointed at  a  previous  meeting.    They  were  as  follows: 

The  committee  appointed  at  a  meeting  of  the  Bar  on  the  14th 
of  March,  to  prepare  resolutions  commemorative  of  the  life  and 
services  of  the  late  Hon.  William  H.  Battle,  respectfully  report: 

William  Horn  Battle  was  born  on  the  17th  of  October,  1802. 
He  was  the  eldest  of  six  brothers.  His  father  was  Joel  Battle, 
and  his  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Amos  Johnson.  They  were 
of  the  first  families  in  Edgecombe  county. 

William  H.  Battle  graduated  at  the  University  of  North  Caro- 
lina, at  the  age  of  about  eighteen,  with  distinction,  delivering  the 
valedictory  address. 

Soon  after  graduating  he  began  the  study  of  the  law  with 
Chief  Justice  Henderson,  and  some  three  years  thereafter  was  so 
well  prepared  that  the  Supreme  Court  gave  him  license  for  both 
the  County  and  Superior  Courts  at  his  first  examination,  which 
was  unusual  at  that  time. 

He  married  Miss  Lucy  Plummer,  the  daughter  of  Kemp 
Plummer,  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Warren,  and  soon  after 
located  at  Louisburg. 

He  had  not  the  qualities  to  push  him  early  to  the  front  in  his 
profession.  He  was  modest  and  retiring,  and  won  his  way  to 
public  confidence  by  industry  and  fidelity. 

He  represented  his  county  for  a  few  years  in  the  Legislature, 
but  his  public  services  were  almost  entirely  professional. 

From  1834  to  1839,  he  was,  in  conjunction  with  Thomas  P. 
Devereux,  Reporter  to  the  Supreme  Court. 

In  1835  he  and  Governor  Iredell  and  Judge  Nash  were  ap- 
pointed to  revise  the  statutes  of  the  State,  and  to  his  learning  and 
industry  the  Revised  Statutes  owed  much  of  its  excellency. 
After  he  was  seventy  years  of  age  the  Legislature  again  appointed 
him  alone  to  revise  the  statutes,  allowing  him  but  little  time 
for  the  work.    This  was  a  high  compliment,  but  it  was  too  much 


12 


for  any  man  to  perform,  and  he  did  not  complete  it  to  his  own 
satisfaction. 

He  republished  some  of  the  older  Supreme  Court  Reports, 
with  annotations,  and  at  different  times  published  four  volumes 
of  digests  of  the  Reports,  which  are  the  only  digests  now  in  use. 

In  1840  he  was  appointed  by  the  Governor,  and  during  the 
same  year  was  elected  by  the  Legislature,  a  Judge  of  the  Supe- 
rior Court,  which  office  he  filled  with  great  acceptability  until 
1848,  when  he  was  appointed  by  the  Governor  to  fill  a  vacancy 
on  the  Supreme  Court  Bench.  The  Legislature,  however,  did 
not  elect  him  to  that  position,  solely  on  account  of  his  location, 
in  a  county  where  there  were  already  three  Judges  and  a  Sena- 
tor in  Congress;  but  he  was,  however,  by  the  same  Legislature, 
reinstated  in  a  very  complimentary  manner  upon  the  Superior 
Court  Bench.  In  1852  he  was  elected  to  the  Supreme  Court 
Bench,  which  place  he  occupied  until  1865,  when  all  the  State 
offices  were  declared  vacant.  He  was  then  again  elected  to  the 
Supreme  Court  Bench,  and  occupied  that  position  until  the  new 
organization  of  the  Court  in  1868.  The  discharge  of  his  duties 
on  the  Supreme  Court  Bench  wras  entirely  satisfactory.  His  de- 
cisions were  just  and  his  opinions  plain  and  learned. 

He  was  for  many  years  Professor  of  Law  at  the  University, 
and  many  of  the  lawyers  of  the  State  were  his  pupils.  After  he 
left  the  Supreme  Court  Bench  in  1868,  he  associated  himself 
with  his  sons,  Kemp  and  Richard,  in  the  law  firm  of  Battle  & 
Sons,  and  prepared  and  argued  cases  in  the  Supreme  Court. 

Judge  Battle  gave  not  a  few  years  of  worn-out  life,  but  his 
whole  manhood  of  a  half  a  century,  to  the  service  of  God;  not 
a  cold,  formal  service,  but  a  warm,  active,  useful  service,  to  which 
everything  else  was  subordinate.  And  he  died  supported  by  the 
Christian  faith,  on  the  14th  of  March,  1879,  without  fear  and 
without  reproach. 

The  following  resolutions  are  recommended: 

The  members  of  this  meeting  will  wear  the  usual  badge  of 
mourning  during  the  present  term  of  the  Supreme  Court, 

That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased  by  the  chairman. 


13 


That  a  copy  of  the  resolutions  and  report  be  presented  to  the 
Supreme  Court,  with  the  request  that  they  be  entered  on  its 
minutes. 

E.  G.  READE, 
D.  G.  FOWLE, 
T.  C.  FULLER, 

Committee. 


HON.  A.  S.  MERRIMON's  SPEECH. 

Mr.  Merrimon,  addressing  the  Chairman,  said : 
Mr.  Chairman:  I  was  acquainted  a  long  while  with  the  late 
Judge  Battle.  I  came  to  understand  very  well  and  to  appreciate 
highly  his  character  and  worth  as  a  man  and  as  a  citizen  in  pri- 
vate and  public  life.  I  entertained  for  him  while  living  pro- 
found respect  and  an  unusual  warmth  of  friendly  feeling.  Now 
that  he  has  passed  away  from  our  midst  forever,  I  venerate  his 
memory.  My  recollections  of  him  will  ever  be  fresh  and  of  the 
most  pleasing  and  agreeable  character.  I  experience  a  mourn- 
ful satisfaction  in  joining  in  these  solemn  ceremonies,  and  am 
glad  to  have  this  opportunity  to  pay  a  brief  and  imperfect  tribute 
to  the  worth  of  my  departed  friend. 

Judge  Battle's  was  a  high  type  of  personal  character.  He 
possessed  a  vigorous  and  well  developed  intellect,  and  took  large 
and  clear  views  of  every  subject  that  came  within  the  range  of 
his  thought.  His  mind  was  well  stored  with  general  and  varied 
information.  He  had  decided  convictions  upon  most  questions 
interesting  to  him,  and  when  necessary,  acted  upon  them  with 
becoming  firmness;  but  he  was  singularly  free  from  bigotry. 
He  was  catholic,  just  and  tolerant  in  his  views  of  men  and  things. 
His  moral  nature  predominated  in  his  character.  He  had  a  high 
moral  sense.  He  thought  that  the  happiness  of  society,  collect- 
ively and  individually,  depended  upon  the  rectitude  of  human 
conduct  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  He  loved  the  right  and  to 
promote  all  its  ends.  It  was  always  his  purpose  to  think  and 
act  rightly;  he  did  no  intentional  wrong.  If  sometimes  he 
made  mistakes,  he  generally  gave  his  support  to  the  right  side 


14 


of  all  questions  involving  doubt.  He  was  foremost  in  the  advo- 
cacy of  such  measures  as  his  judgment  approved  and  he  deemed 
important. 

His  nature  and  his  conduct  were  alike  gentle,  affable  and 
kind — he  was  just  and  charitable,  generous  and  merciful,  cour- 
teous and  honorable — he  was  polite  and  paid  due  regard  to  his 
fellow-man  in  every  condition  of  life;  he  was  justly  beloved  by 
everybody  who  knew  him,  of  all  classes.  I  do  not  think  he  had 
an  enemy  in  the  world.  He  was  not  insensible  to  praise;  he 
appreciated  commendation,  and  he  did  not  withhold  it  from  the 
meritorious. 

He  had  deep  religious  convictions.  He  believed  firmly  in 
God  and  the  Christian  religion,  and  earnestly  and  consistently 
laid  hold  of  the  Cross  as  the  sure  foundation  for  his  hopes  of  im- 
mortality and  eternal  blessedness. 

His  physical  stature  was  not  large;  it  was  well  proportioned; 
he  had  a  manly  presence  and  bearing,  but  he  was  not  obtrusive; 
on  the  contrary  he  was  modest  and  retiring.  His  face  was  usually 
lit  up  with  a  pleasant  smile,  and  good  will  beamed  forth  in  every 
feature. 

Judge  Battle  was  an  earnest  and  true  patriot.  He  sincerely 
loved  his  country  and  her  institutions.  He  was  ever  the  firm 
and  unyielding  friend  of  civil  liberty.  I  never  saw  him  more 
earnest  and  determined  than  in  a  protracted  struggle  in  behalf 
of  public  liberty  some  years  ago,  in  which  he  bore  a  leading 
part. 

His  views  on  political  questions  and  measures  were  decided, 
and  he  quietly  identified  himself  with  some  political  party,  but 
he  was  never  a  politician  in  the  ordinary  acceptance  of  that 
term. 

He  was  a  well-read,  painstaking  and  sound  lawyer.  He  was 
well  grounded  in  the  great  principles  of  the  law,  and  was  espe- 
cially familiar  with  the  laws  and  judicial  decisions  of  our  own 
State.  Indeed,  there  has  been  no  lawyer  more  learned  than  he 
in  the  laws  of  this  State.  He  was  exceedingly  fond  and  proud 
of  his  profession,  he  upheld  its  honor  always  and  everywhere,  and 
he  was  an  honor  to  it. 


15 


He  was  a  learned,  patient  and  upright  Judge.  In  this  capac- 
ity, he  was  much  identified  with  the  public  and  most  distinguished. 
He  sat  upon  the  Superior  Court  Bench  for  many  years,  and  for 
a  much  longer  period  on  the  Supreme  Court  Bench.  His  deport- 
ment as  a  Judge  was  orderly  and  dignified,  always  commanding 
the  confidence,  respect  and  affection  of  the  legal  profession  and 
the  people.  His  judicial  opinions  were  well  considered  and  able, 
some  of  them  strikingly  so,  and  they  afford  an  enduring  monu- 
ment to  his  memory,  while  they  reflect  high  distinction  on  the 
Bench  of  our  State. 

I  shall  not  say  that  Judge  Battle  was  a  great  man  in  any 
single  respect,  but  he  was  great  in  the  unity,  symmetry,  good- 
ness and  beauty  of  his  character.  His  whole  record  is  stainless. 
It  is  a  long  one,  alike  honorable  to  himself,  to  his  profession,  the 
Bench  and  the  State.  His  life  was  a  long  and  eminently  useful 
one.  In  the  order  of  things,  he  died  peacefully,  full  of  consola- 
tion, and  crowned  with  blessings  and  honor. 

It  affords  me  pleasure  to  say  these  plain  words,  because  they 
are  true  and  just.  Let  us  ever  remember  and  endeavor  to  emu- 
late this  noble  example.  May  my  end  of  this  life  be  that  of  our 
departed  friend ! 

MR.  S.  A.  ASHE'S  SPEECH. 

Me.  Chairman: — Although  my  acquaintance  with  Judge 
Battle  was  of  comparatively  recent  date,  my  association  with 
him  was  so  agreeable  that  I  cannot  remain  silent  on  this  occasion, 
when  we  have  assembled  to  do  honor  to  his  memory. 

To  portray  the  virtues  of  departed  citizens  who  have  worthily 
filled  high  station  in  the  State,  has  been  the  custom  among  men 
in  all  ages  and  all  countries,  and  the  practice  is  no  less  honorable 
to  human  nature  than  it  is  beneficial  in  its  tendencies  to  the  social 
condition  of  man. 

By  presenting  to  public  view  the  characteristics  of  men  emi- 
nent for  noble  qualities  of  mind  and  heart,  and  tracing  the 
relation  which  these  characteristics  have  borne  to  an  honorable 
career,  we  recommend  them  to  those  who  would  profit  by  human 
experience  and  convert  the  illustrious  dead  into  living  influences 


16 


even  more  potent  for  good  than  while  they  yet  moved  in  their 
accustomed  places  among  the  homes  of  men. 

By  this  means  men  survive  their  material  annihilation,  and 
live  through  time  as  bright  examplars,  or  as  beacon  lights  to 
warn  posterity  against  the  defects  of  human  character. 

In  the  lapse  of  years  as  the  period  of  their  activity  recedes  in 
the  obscurity  of  the  past,  what  they  had  in  common  with  man- 
kind is  utterly  forgotten,  and  they  are  known  only  in  an  action 
or  a  sentiment  which  elevates  their  names  above  the  stagnant 
waters  of  oblivion.  Thus  the  virtue  of  Cato,  the  patriotism  of 
Cincinnatus,  the  heroism  of  Leonidas,  are  now  the  ideas  these 
names  evoke,  the  lessons  they  teach  to  each  succeeding  genera- 
tion of  distant  nations. 

Fortunate  then  is  that  land  where  monuments  are  erected  to 
the  memory  of  its  illustrious  dead,  where  the  lesson  of  their 
lives  is  constantly  enforced  and  where  their  great  actions,  noble 
qualities  and  their  virtues  are  not  buried  away  out  of  sight  with 
the  useless  dust  that  once  was  vivified  by  the  immortal  parts  of 
departed  worth. 

There  was  little  about  Judge  Battle  to  dazzle  the  fancy,  excite 
the  imagination  or  inflame  ambition,  but  yet  the  story  of  his 
life  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  our 
State. 

The  heroes  of  our  battles,  it  is  true,  have  not  engaged  in  car- 
nage either  for  conquest,  plunder,  or  lust  of  glory.  Our  states- 
men are  honored  in  proportion  as  they  devote  themselves  to  se- 
curing the  rights  of  man,  to  ameliorating  the  condition  of  their 
fellow-citizens  and  establishing  society  on  the  eternal  principles  of 
justice.  But  these  are  actors  in  exciting  scenes;  their  lives 
feverish;  their  success  uncertain  and  subject  to  varying  vicissi- 
tudes; their  triumphs  oftentimes  mingled  with  bitterness;  their 
pathways  beset  with  dangers  and  full  of  snares.  Courageous, 
patriotic,  virtuous,  wise  as  they  may  be,  their  career  not  unfre- 
quently  terminates  in  disaster,  and  their  sun  goes  down  with 
lowering  clouds  obscuring  its  effulgence,  while  envy,  jealousy 
and  repining  augment  the  evils  that  have  overtaken  them. 

But  when  we  consider  the  life  of  Judge  Battle  we  feel  emo- 


17 


tions  of  pleasure  similar  to  those  which  affect  us  on  viewing  some 
lovely  and  picturesque  landscape.  The  awful  chasm,  the  stu- 
pendous and  grand  mountain,  the  sublime  and  majestic  ocean 
moved  by  an  unseen  and  mysterious  power,  are  absent  from  the 
picture.  All  is  placid,  serene  and  harmonious,  and  we  are 
sensible  of  a  lively  gratification  whether  the  eye  rests  upon  any 
particular  part  or  we  take  in  the  entire  scene  at  one  general  view. 

Here  are  displayed  great  amiability,  joined  with  firmness  and 
decision  of  character;  unusual  modesty,  associated  with  self-re- 
liance and  courage  of  opinion ;  learning  and  high  station,  adorned 
by  a  gentle  carriage  and  polite  courtesy  ;  a  laborious  life,  uncan- 
kered  by  scheming  ambition ;  virtue  and  honor,  fostered  by  manly 
sentiments,  and  resting  on  the  simple  faith  that  the  source  of 
all  virtue,  and  the  fountain  of  all  honor,  is  that  Supreme  Being 
to  whom  he  ascribed  his  creation,  preservation,  and  all  the  bless- 
ings of  his  life. 

There  was  a  roundness  and  completeness  about  Judge  Battle's 
character  that  accords  well  with  the  symmetry  of  his  life. 

In  every  relation  he  was  a  true  and  lawful  man.  Assuming 
duties  he  discharged  them  zealously  and  to  the  best  of  his  ability. 

As  a  lawyer,  he  wras  studious,  conscientious  and  faithful,  and 
never  deviated  from  that  honorable  deportment  whose  general 
observance  has  exalted  our  profession  above  all  other  secular 
employments. 

The  Bar  has  ever  been  the  mainstay  of  popular  liberty.  It 
has  long  been  its  traditionary  office  to  hold  the  mean  between 
license  and  oppression ;  to  preserve  the  liberties  of  the  people,  to 
conserve  the  just  powrers  of  government  on  whose  efficacy  de- 
pends the  whole  fabric  and  structure  of  our  civilization  and 
social  polity.  Knowing  the  limits  of  lawful  power,  it  is  our 
glory  to  have  ever  interposed  to  check  by  peaceful  means  its  un- 
lawful exercise.  From  generation  to  generation  the  story  repeats 
itself.  And  in  our  own  day  we  have  witnessed  Bragg,  Graham 
and  Battle  (and  another  still  living)  standing  side  by  side  in  a 
doubtful  contest  for  the  supremacy  of  law  and  the  right  of  the 
citizen  to  freedom  and  personal  liberty. 


3 


18 


It  would  hardly  become  me  to  pass  even  favorable  judgment 
on  this  distinguished  jurist,  who  served  most  acceptably  upon  the 
Bench  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

His  opinions  as  written  in  the  reports  speak  for  themselves. 
They  will  go  down  to  posterity  an  enduring  monument  of  his 
judicial  excellence  and  juridical  attainments.  It  is  enough  for 
me  to  say  that  his  fellow-citizens  placed  him  on  the  Bench  with 
Ruffin  and  Pearson — noscitur  a  sociis! 

As  a  Judge  he  was  upright,  learned  and  full  of  veneration  for 
the  sages  of  the  law. 

In  the  administration  of  justice  he  was  patient,  prompt,  firm 
and  courageous. 

A  trivial  incident  recently  narrated  to  me  by  one  who  wit- 
nessed it,  illustrates  a  phase  of  his  character.  It  was  many 
years  ago,  when  he  was  riding  the  circuit  in  a  distant  county.  A 
Solicitor,  who  was  a  man  of  desperate  resolution  and  unbridled 
will,  not  unfrequently  appeared  in  Court  greatly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  drink.  His  high  spirit  and  determined  and  reckless 
bearing  had  apparently  deterred  some  of  the  Judges  from  enforc- 
ing decorum  on  these  occasions.  Indeed,  it  was  supposed  that 
he  would  not  submit  to  interference  or  rebuke  on  the  part  of  any 
Judge.  When,  however,  Judge  Battle  rode  that  circuit  and  the 
Solicitor  appeared  in  Court  intoxicated,  the  Judge  promptly  told 
him  he  was  in  no  condition  to  perform  his  duties,  and  directed 
another  lawyer  to  take  charge  of  the  docket,  and  then  added : 
"And  if  you,  sir,  appear  before  me  intoxicated  again,  I  will  put 
you  in  jail  for  contempt/7  It  is  said  that  after  that,  other  Judges 
found  no  difficulty  in  making  the  same  order. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  have  been  associated  with  this  distin- 
guished citizen,  not  only  at  the  Bar,  but  in  some  other  relations. 
And  I  may  be  pardoned  for  making  a  brief  allusion  to  the  fervor 
with  which  he  discharged  his  religious  duties.  A  person  of  his 
cast  of  mind  and  singleness  of  purpose  might  well  be  presumed 
to  have  strong  religious  convictions.  His  faith  was  indeed  a 
part  of  his  daily  life.  Believing,  he  accepted  Christianity,  and 
the  principles  of  the  Gospel  became  his  principles,  and  its  pre- 
cepts, as  far  as  may  be,  his  practice.    Speaking  after  the  manner 


19 


of  men,  he  was  an  ornament  to  the  Church  with  which  he  was 
connected,  and  his  Christian  faith  and  walk  in  life  adorned  and 
ennobled  his  character,  enlarged  and  refined  his  virtue,  and  gave 
him  an  indefeasible  title  to  be  known  as  a  Christian  gentleman, 
the  worthiest  appellation  that  can  be  earned  by  mortal  man. 

It  is  said  that  when  Judge  Battle  first  came  to  the  Bar,  he 
was,  like  Blackstone,  so  unsuccessful  in  obtaining  business,  that 
for  years  no  case  was  committed  to  his  charge.  And  yet  he 
achieved  the  highest  honors  in  his  profession!  Truly  in  his  case 
may  it  be  said,  that  labor  conquers  all  things. 

Possessed  of  no  dazzling  qualities,  not  gifted  with  splendid 
genius,  unversed  in  the  art  of  pushing  one's  fortunes  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue,  by  his  shining  virtue,  by  his  high  character,  by  his 
solid  learning,  by  his  industry  and  professional  attainments,  he 
won  for  himself  the  respect  and  admiration  of  a  noble  people,  and 
gained  without  solicitation  the  measure  of  a  worthy  ambition. 

Little  could  he  have  anticipated  when  year  after  year  passed 
and  left  him  as  it  found  him,  briefless,  despairing,  hopeless  of 
professional  preferment,  that  in  his  after  life  there  would  be  full 
compensation  for  all  the  despondency  of  that  gloomy  period. 
But  a  cold  winter  brings  its  hot  summer,  and  with  him  the  thaws 
of  spring  gave  way  to  a  warm  sunshine  that  lasted  far  into  the 
autumn  of  his  life,  until  indeed  he  was  in  the  sere  and  yellow 
leaf,  ready  to  fall  when  nature  should  do  its  kindly  office  and 
transfer  his  immortal  soul  to  another  sphere. 

Such  is  the  record  of  this  man's  life!  Many  days  well  spent; 
many  duties  well  performed;  a  life  of  labor  high  in  judicial 
station;  a  life  of  courtesy  and  stainless  honor;  a  life  devoted 
to  his  country  and  his  God ! 

Than  this,  lawful  ambition  hath  no  higher  mark ! 

REMARKS  OF  HON.  WM.  R.  COX. 

Mr.  Chairman: — In  placing  a  garland  upon  the  tomb  of 
our  distinguished  brother,  I  do  not  propose  to  linger  upon  his 
early  struggles,  his  triumphs  at  the  Bar,  nor  dwell  upon  his  ac- 
complishments as  a  Judge.  For  those  matters  have  been  com- 
prehensively and  appropriately  epitomized  by  those  who  have 


20 


preceded  me,  some  of  whom  have  known  him  longer,  but  not 
more  intimately  than  myself. 

The  few  remarks  I  propose  to  submit,  shall  be  confined  chiefly 
to  his  distinguishing  characteristics  as  a  private  citizen  and  as  a 
public  man.  From  our  first  acquaintance  he  impressed  me  with 
his  great  purity  and  simplicity  of  character,  and  though  then  in 
the  zenith  of  his  fame,  there  was  nothing  ostentatious,  nothing 
pretentious  in  his  manner  or  bearing. 

I  readily  perceived  that  his  promotion  had  not  been  in  any 
respect  meretricious,  and  sought  to  discover  by  what  means  his 
success  had  been  achieved,  and  the  task  was  not  a  difficult  one. 
It  arose  from  a  zealous  economy  of  his  time;  a  methodical 
manner;  great  purity  of  character  and  a  conscientious  and 
punctilious  observance  of  every  duty  required  of  him.  He  was 
steadfast,  but  not  obtrusive  in  his  opinions,  charitable  to  all,  firm 
and  unswerving  in  his  personal  and  political  integrity. 

And  thus  he  furnished  to  the  young  men  of  the  profession,  to 
whom  he  was  ever  kind  and  considerate,  a  living  example  of 
what  may  be  accomplished  without  brilliant  talents,  by  a  rigid 
adhesion  to  principle  and  a  diligent  improvement  of  those  oppor- 
tunities which  may  be  enjoyed  by  all. 

He  took  much  pleasure  in  attending  the  general  and  Diocesan 
Conventions  of  his  Church,  and  in  these  bodies  of  distinguished 
men  ever  occupied  a  prominent,  yea,  a  leading  part,  and  here- 
after his  absence  will  be  greatly  lamented.  His  Christian  char- 
acter at  all  times  was  hopeful,  cheerful  and  conspicuously 
exemplary,  and  was  the  crowning  glory  of  his  old  age.  There 
was  nothing  ascetic  in  his  nature.  In  every  enterprise  calculated 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  his  State,  he  took  an  active  interest,  as 
well  as  in  those  matters  which  were  intended  to  benefit  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived,  and  in  discharging  the  duties  then 
imposed  upon  him  through  committees,  without  demurrer  on  his 
part  he  moulded  the  thought  and  performed  the  chief  part  of 
the  labor. 

Wielding  a  ready  pen,  I  assert  with  confidence,  without  enu- 
merating his  various  memorials,  that  he  contributed  more  to  the 
legal  and  biographical  literature  of  our  profession  than  any  man 


21 


in  the  State.  He  was  a  friend  to  popular  education  and  sensitive 
to  calls  of  poverty  and  distress,  which  he  relieved  with  a  gener- 
ous hand,  according  to  his  ability.  "Take  him  for  all  in  all," 
he  came  nearer  employing  usefully  all  the  talents  with  which  he 
was  endowed  than  any  man  with  whom  I  was  ever  brought  into 
intimate  relations. 

On  the  Bench  his  uprightness  and  integrity  of  character  caused 
even  the  humblest  to  feel  that  justice  would  be  administered 
without  prejudice  or  favor,  and  his  courtesy  to  the  Bar  restrained 
and  controlled  those  ebullitions  of  feeling  which  will  occasionally 
arise  in  the  trial  of  important  causes. 

When  Sir  Matthew  Hale  died,  his  friend  Baxter  purchased  a 
Bible,  in  which  he  placed  a  print  of  the  deceased,  and  underneath 
wrote  these  words:  "Sir  Matthew  Hale — the  pillar  of  justice, 
who  would  not  have  done  an  unjust  thing  for  any  worldly  prize 
or  motive." 

This  eulogium  to  England's  great  judge  may  be  truthfully 
applied  to  our  distinguished  friend,  and  those  who  knew  him 
intimately  and  his  conduct  in  regard  to  his  elections  can  most 
fully  appreciate  its  appropriateness.  However  coveted  the  prize 
of  the  ermine,  no  assurance  of  success  could  tempt  him  to  veer 
from  what  he  believed  to  be  right  to  secure  it;  he  considered 
that  a  judgeship  should  be  a  free-will  offering,  and  the  same 
purity  and  independence  which  ought  to  distinguish  its  possessor 
should  regulate  the  action  of  those  by  whom  it  was  conferred. 

And  thus  able,  amiable,  courteous,  unselfish  and  just,  true  to 
his  country,  endeared  to  his  friends,  respected  by  all  his  neigh- 
bors, tender  and  exemplary  in  his  family  relations,  he  closed  a  long 
life  of  usefulness  and  ended  his  mission  surrounded  by  his  child- 
ren, after  having  participated  in  the  baptism  of  a  descendant  of 
the  third  generation.  After  such  a  life,  who  would  not  desire 
that  his  last  days  might  be  such  as  his?  Thus  departing,  he  has 
left  e'en  upon  the  mountain  top  of  death  a  light  which  gives  assur  - 
ance of  a  blessed  immortality. 

" Light  be  the  sod  which  rests  upon  his  breast;  green  be  the 
grass  that  grows  upon  his  grave;  eternal  be  the  laurels  that 
flourish  round  his  tomb." 


22 


SUBSTANCE  OF  THE  REMARKS  OF  MR.  F.  H.  BUSBEE. 

Mr.  Chairman: — It  will  be  difficult  to  add  aught  to  the 
well  considered  eulogies  we  have  just  heard,  but  my  own  grati- 
tude to  my  dead  friend  will  not  permit  me  to  keep  silent.  My 
first  lessons  in  the  law  were  learned  at  his  feet,  and  as  a  student 
at  the  University,  of  slender  means,  I  received  kindnesses  at  his 
hands  which  I  shall  never  forget. 

A  recent  newspaper  has  sneeringly  commented  upon  the  reso- 
lutions and  addresses  of  meetings  of  the  Bar  in  honor  of  deceased 
brethren,  and  suggests  that  our  admiration  of,  and  love  for,  these 
gentlemen  was  never  suspected  while  living.  The  shaft  falls 
hurtless  to-day.  It  is  true,  that  while  our  brethren  are  with  us, 
there  is  no  occasion  for  an  expression  of  our  estimates  of  their 
lives  and  characters,  and  it  is  only  when  they  have  passed  "over 
to  the  great  majority  beyond,"  that  we  are  called  upon  to  place  on 
record  the  memorial  of  their  life-work.  I  have  been  struck  to- 
day with  the  moderation,  and,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  accuracy 
with  which  Judge  Battle's  character  has  been  portrayed.  He 
was  no  splendid  genius,  no  thrilling  orator;  he  was  a  laborious 
and  learned  jurist;  he  lived  and  died  a  Christian  gentleman. 
Who  could  desire  a  n6bler  epitaph  ? 

I  desire  simply  to  point  a  single  moral  from  his  life  for  the 
instruction  and  encouragement  of  the  younger  members  of  the 
profession.  The  leading  features  of  Judge  Battle's  career  were 
his  unwearied  industry,  and  his  unbending  integrity;  wherever 
these  characteristics  came  into  prominence  his  success  was  sure. 
At  the  University  he  stood  among  the  first  in  a  class  of  great 
intellectual  ability ;  as  a  law  student  his  preparation  was  so 
thorough  that  the  Supreme  Court  gave  him  both  Superior  and 
County  Court  licenses  upon  a  single  examination.  And  then, 
when  he  had  settled  in  the  quiet  village  of  Louisburg,  came  the 
days  of  doubt  and  despondency.  Possessed  of  a  small  library, 
his  studies  were  for  the  most  part  confined  to  the  old  text-books, 
and  to  the  North  Carolina  decisions,  the  latter  especially.  Not  a 
popular  orator,  with  no  art  of  the  demagogue,  daily  seeing  men, 
his  inferiors,  attaining  a  success  in  the  smaller  Criminal  and 


23 


County  Court  practice  beyond  his  own,  how  he  must  have 
wearied  in  his  work,  and  have  asked  himself  what  good  will  all 
this  labor  accomplish?  The  temptation  to  follow  in  their  easier 
pathway  must  have  been  strong.  Yet  he  was  then  laying  the 
foundation  for  his  future  success  in  life;  but  for  the  struggling 
years  of  slender  practice  at  Louisburg,  his  familiarity  with  the 
decisions  of  North  Carolina  could  never  have  been  attained,  and 
his  subsequent  career  would  have  been  totally  different. 

When  the  opportunity  came,  an  opportunity  so  gratefully  and 
gracefully  acknowledged  in  the  preface  to  his  Digest,  he  showed 
in  his  work  upon  the  Reports  the  stuff  that  was  in  him,  and  his 
future  was  assured.  Step  by  step,  laboriously  he  rose  until  he 
received  the  highest  professional  honors  in  the  gift  of  his  State, 
and  won  them  by  the  divine  right  of  labor  and  of  merit. 

I  shall  not  trespass  upon  the  time  of  the  meeting  by  adding 
my  appreciation  of  Judge  Battle's  Christian  character.  It  per- 
meated the  whole  man.  You  cannot  view  him  as  a  lawyer,  as  a 
judge,  or  as  a  citizen,  without  seeing  everywhere  his  perfect  faith 
in  Christianity,  his  stainless  delicacy  of  thought  and  expression, 
his  unswerving  honor  and  honesty  If  he  be  not  a  fit  exemplar 
for  the  young  men  of  North  Carolina,  I  know  not  wThere  one 
can  be  found.  He  crowned  a  long  life  of  usefulness  with  a 
peaceful  death  among  his  kindred,  and  in  sound  of  the  college 
bell  that  had  called  the  best  youth  of  the  State  around  him  for 
so  many  years.  I  join  Mr.  Lewis  in  congratulating  his  sons 
upon  the  manner  and  the  time  of  his  death.  Felix  non  solum 
vitce  claritate,  sed  etiam  opportunitate  mortis. 

SUBSTANCE  OF  THE  REMARKS  OF  MR.  E.  R.  STAMPS. 

Mr.  Chairman  : — I  only  ask  the  indulgence  of  the  brethren  of 
the  Bar  for  one  moment.  I  have  seen  somewhere  that  a  certain 
Englishman  had  such  reverence  for  the  character  of  Sir  Philip 
Sidney  that  he  said  he  wanted  no  prouder  epitaph  upon  his 
tomb  than  this:  " Here  lies  the  friend  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney," 
and  so  I  arise  simply  that  I  may  be  recorded  as  a  friend  and  ad- 
mirer of  our  honored  brother.  A  man  is  never  great,  Mr. 
Chairman,  unless  he  is  good.    Judge  Battle  was  good  and  true, 


24 


and  his  death,  unlike  that  of  most  of  us,  causing  but  a  slight 
shadow  upon  our  own  family  hearthstone,  casts  a  sombre  gloom 
across  our  whole  State.  I  will  mention  but  one  trait  of  his 
character  that  has  come  to  my  notice,  and  which  has  not  been 
touched  on  by  the  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me,  that  is,  he 
never  used  his  tongue  to  back-bite  his  fellows,  he  never  "took 
up  a  reproach  against  his  neighbor,"  but  was  always  kind  and 
courteous,  and  ever  ready  to  cheer  and  encourage  his  younger 
professional  brother.  Mr.  Chairman,  no  man  should  desire  a 
nobler  heritage  than  that  which  Judge  Battle  has  left,  the  glory 
of  a  life  of  toil,  and  an  unsullied  name. 


(Obituary  by  Mrs.  C.  P.  Spencer  in  the  Churchman  of  April  12th,  1879.) 

JUDGE  BATTLE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


One  of  the  representative  men  of  North  Carolina  and  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  has  been  laid  to  sleep  and  gathered  to  his 
fathers. 

The  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Battle,  LL.  D.,  late  Associate  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina,  departed  this  life  March 
14th,  1879,  in  Chapel  Hill,  at  the  residence  of  his  son,  the  Hon. 
Kemp  P.  Battle,  President  of  the  State  University.  He  was 
born  October  17th,  1802,  in  Edgecombe  county,  where  his  an- 
cestors were  among  the  earliest  settlers,  and  where  the  Battle 
family  has  always  been  numerous,  prominent  and  respected. 

Judge  Battle  graduated  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina 
in  1820,  having  the  honor  of  the  valedictory  oration.  He  read 
law  in  the  office  of  Chief-Justice  Henderson,  and  entered  upon 
the  practice  of  his  profession  in  1823.  In  1825  he  married 
Lucy  Martin,  daughter  of  Kemp  Plummer,  Esq.,  a  prominent 
lawyer  of  Warrenton — a  union  which  largely  determined  the 
advantage  and  happiness  of  his  future  life.  His  rise  in  his  pro- 
fession was  at  first  slow,  and  those  early  years  of  probation  were 
cheered  and  stimulated  by  the  unfaltering  devotion,  cheerful- 


25 


ness  and  energy  of  his  admirable  partner.  In  later  life,  when 
many  and  well-deserved  honors  had  crowned  his  labors,  Judge 
Battle  was  fond  of  recalling  that  time  and  ascribing,  with  no 
ungraceful  pride,  much  of  his  perseverance  and  success  to  the 
gentle  but  powerful  influences  of  his  home. 

Between  the  years  1827  and  1840,  Judge  Battle  resided  in 
Louisburg.  He  represented  Franklin  county  in  the  Legislature, 
and  was  engaged  in  reporting  the  Supreme  Court  decisions  from 
1834  to  1839.  In  1835  he  was  associated  with  Governor  Ire- 
dell and  Judge  Nash  in  preparing  the  Revised  Statutes  of  North 
Carolina.  He  removed  to  Raleigh  about  1840,  and  was  elevated 
to  the  Superior  Court  Bench  in  that  year.  In  1843  he  removed 
to  Chapel  Hill,  the  seat  of  the  University,  for  the  purpose  of 
educating  his  sons  in  an  institution  which  was  an  object  of  life- 
long affection  to  him  as  an  Alumnus  and  as  a  Trustee,  where  his 
father  and  five  brothers,  and  where,  finally,  all  of  his  own  six 
sons  were  educated.  Here  he  was  elected  to  the  Professorship  of 
Law,  conducting  for  many  years  a  successful  law  school.  In 
1852  he  was  called  to  the  Supreme  Court  Bench,  and  sat  as  Asso- 
ciate Justice  till  the  reconstruction  of  the  State  government  at 
the  close  of  the  war.  The  University  going  down  in  the  same 
revolution,  he  again  moved  to  Raleigh,  and,  associating  his  sons, 
Kemp  P.  and  R.  H.,  with  him,  built  up  a  leading  and  lucrative 
practice  at  the  Bar.  In  1866  he  was  elected  President  of  the 
Raleigh  National  Bank.  Two  years  before,  he  lost  his  devoted 
wife.  Upon  the  revival  of  the  University,  his  eldest  son,  K.  P. 
Battle,  was  elected  President  of  the  institution,  and  the  Judge, 
having  made  his  home  with  him,  in  1877  accompanied  the  family 
back  to  Chapel  Hill,  to  close  his  wearied  eyes  among  old  friends 
and  well-beloved  scenes,  soothed  by  the  tender  care  of  children 
and  grandchildren,  and  sustained  by  an  unfaltering  trust  in  that 
Saviour  in  whose  love  he  said  emphatically  he  believed,  to  whose 
Cross  he  clun<j,  and  to  whom  he  committed  himself  "without  a 
shadow  of  fear." 

Judge  Battle  and  his  wife  saw  eight  of  their  ten  children  reach 
maturity.    Of  these,  three  sons  only  survive,  and  are  their  best 
legacy  to  their  native  State  and  to  their  Church. 
4 


26 


The  highest  eulogy  of  Judge  Battle  is  to  describe  his  character 
in  simplest  terms.  His  whole  life,  private  and  public,  was 
marked  by  modesty,  purity,  unblemished  integrity,  a  firm  and 
sound  judgment,  and  an  unostentatious  charity.  His  learning 
was  extensive,  and  as  a  faithful  and  judicious  expounder  of  the 
law,  he  had  no  superior.  The  confidence  felt  in  his  calm,  be- 
nignant judgment  was  unbounded.  For  more  than  forty  years 
he  was  a  communicant  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  loved  her 
courts  with  ever-increasing  devotion.  He  was  a  delegate  to  her 
Diocesan  and  General  Conventions  for  twenty-five  years  con- 
tinuously, where  his  counsels  and  presence  ever  afforded  a  strong 
element  of  dignity  and  conservatism.  He  was  a  churchman  of 
the  old  school,  and  gave  in  his  life  of  unswerving  attachment  to 
her  principles  and  her  service — a  life  of  unsullied  goodness,  a 
life  hid  with  Christ  in  God — the  best  exemplification  of  the 
influence  of  her  teachings  on  the  minds  of  her  children.  All 
classes  and  all  denominations  loved  and  honored  the  Church  in 
him.  For  such  sons  the  Church  may  well  rejoice  and  give 
thanks,  even  while  she  mourns  that  her  earthly  courts  shall  know 
them  no  more. 

"  what  a  marvellous  awaking 

Will  the  last  sweet  Easter  morning  to  the  faithful-hearted  be  I 
With  what  untold  joy  and  rapture  they  will  hail  the  glory  breaking, 
And  before  the  unveiled  presence,  in  its  glory,  stand  with  Thee." 

Chapel  Hill,  N.  C,  March  27th,  1879. 


EXTRACT  FROM  AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 
ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  NORTH 
CAROLINA,  AT  THE  ANNUAL  COMMENCEMENT,  ON  THE 
FOURTH  DAY  OF  JUNE,  1879,  BY  THE  HON  SAMUEL  F. 
PHILLIPS,  SOLICITOR-GENERAL  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


By  persons  used  to  these  anniversaries,  the  face  and  hand  most 
missed  to-day  are  those  of  William  Horn  Battle.  For  more 
than  thirty  years  he  has  been  one  of  our  most  constant  attend- 
ants. His  fresh  and  hearty  greeting  of  visitors,  unreserved  sym- 
pathy with  the  anxiety  and  enthusiasm  of  youthful  orators  and 


27 


scholars,  punctual  presence  at  every  session  and  exercise,  and  un- 
flagging interest  in  every  circumstance,  were  manifestations  of 
an  exuberant  good-will  towards  man,  and  a  conscientious  regard 
for  official  duty — the  more  delightful  because  known  to  be  mere 
samples  of  conduct  in  all  the  stages  and  in  every  sphere  of  a 
long,  busy  and  honored  life.  We  have  had  no  citizen  in  the 
State  better  fitted  to  be  held  up  as  an  example  to  young  men. 
There  have  been  citizens  of  more  imposing  ability,  and  of  careers 
better  calculated  to  impress  youthful  imagination ;  but  in  a  State 
fruitful  of  such  products  there  has  been  none  who  has  given  to 
the  public,  his  friends  and  his  family,  service  more  conscientious 
and  its  place  more  valuable,  or  who,  to  all  human  estimate,  has 
rendered  to  the  Great  Taskmaster  a  more  just  account  of  even- 
talent  originally  entrusted.  It  is  by  such  tests  that  exemplars 
are  proved,  and  therefore  it  is  that  Mr.  Battle's  daily  appearance 
before  the  students  of  this  Institution  during  the  many  years 
for  which  he  resided  here,  has  been  indirectly  an  element  of  edu- 
cation for  which  their  friends  may  well  give  thanks.  So  far  as 
his  great  modesty  has  permitted  their  attention  to  be  drawn  to 
him,  they  have  had  before  their  eyes  a  living  example  of  dis- 
tinguished success  in  the  public  and  more  difficult  walks  of  life, 
attained  by  the  force  of  merit  alone.  They  have  observed  his 
industry,  his  integrity,  his  piety,  the  sweetness  of  his  temper, 
his  charming  domestic  life,  the  reverence  in  which  he  was  held 
by  his  neighbors,  the  gentle  and  silent  submission  of  his  un- 
usually sensitive  nature  to  bitter  bereavements — some  by  war, 
some  common  to  late  life's  transitory  scene;  and  in  all  there  was 
nothing  which  in  their  best  moments  they  may  not  well  have 
aspired  in  like  case  themselves  to  be,  or  in  striving  to  become 
which  in  after  life  they  will  not  have  raised  themselves  to  all 
that  God  permitted. 

As  the  son  of  a  gentleman  who  was  himself  amongst  our 
earliest  Alumni,  Mr.  Battle  was  fortunate  in  having  his  prepara- 
tory education  well  cared  for,  so  that  upon  reaching  the  Uni- 
versity he  became  distinguished  as  a  scholar,  and  at  last  gradu- 
ated with  the  highest  academical  honors.  Subsequently  he  read 
law  with  Mr.  Henderson,  in  those  days  one  of  the  great  lights 


28 


of  the  Bench — still  held  in  reverence  as  a  master  of  the  common 
law,  and  noted  for  the  charming  candor  and  simplicity  of  tem- 
per which  once  marked  his  life,  and  still  shines  in  his  judicial 
opinions.  Mr.  Battle's  habits  of  study,  and  ability  to  learn  fol- 
lowed him  here,  and  so  well  was  his  proficiency  understood,  that 
upon  applying  to  be  called  to  the  Bar,  the  Supreme  Court  de- 
clined to  examine  him,  and  although  two  different  examina- 
tions, with  an  interval  of  a  year,  were  then  usually  required, 
these  in  his  case  were  dispensed  with,  and  both  licenses  were 
given  at  once. 

There  was  nothing  especially  notable  about  Mr.  Battle's  career 
as  an  advocate,  except  that  he  occupied  the  enforced  leisure  that 
so  generally  falls  to  young  lawyers  by  editing  a  volume  of  the 
early  North  Carolina  Reports.  Nothing  could  be  better  con- 
sidered than  this  early  challenge  to  public  and  especially  pro- 
fessional attention,  and  nothing  more  satisfactory  than  its  results. 
His  edition  of  "  First  Haywood,"  which  is  a  most  interesting 
and  profitable  book  to  the  North  Carolina  lawyer,  may  be  pointed 
to  distinctly  as  the  corner-stone  of  his  fortunes.  It  suggested 
his  appointment  upon  the  Commission  to  revise  the  statutes  of 
the  State  and  afterwards  as  one  of  the  Reporters  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  out  of  the  manner  in  which  he  discharged  his  duty 
in  these  connections  arose  that  unsurpassed  familiarity  with  the 
statutes  and  decisions  of  North  Carolina  which,  together  with 
unruffled  patience  in  hearing,  and  sound  judgment  in  determin- 
ing, constituted  Mr.  Battle's  excellent  qualifications  for  a  seat 
upon  our  Bench  in  the  last  resort.  His  rising  to  the  rarer  honors 
of  the  profession  was  due  to  the  impression  made  in  this  way 
upon  his  leaders  at  the  Bar,  rather  than  that  other  method 
which  in  popular  governments  is  the  more  beaten  track — I 
mean,  an  appeal  to  the  people,  begun  in  a  display  of  brilliant  quali- 
ties at  the  forum  and  upon  the  hustings.  It  is  a  rather  curious 
matter  of  reflection  that  professional  success  in  North  Carolina 
has  so  rarely  owed  its  foundation  to  the  making  of  books.  Pub- 
lications by  members  of  the  North  Carolina  Bar  have  always 
been  too  few,  and  that  it  may  be  well  to  recall  their  attention  to 
the  instance  before  us — the  more  because  within  a  few  days  past, 


29 


after  an  age  of  repose  from  such  labors,  they  have  been  startled 
by  having  a  "carpet-bagger"  devise  and  tender  for  their  use  the 
most  valuable  manual  that  has  ever  abridged  and  simplified 
their  toil. 

It  would  be  to  give  to  this  notice  of  Mr.  Battle  a  character  too 
technical  were  I  to  attempt  to  analyze  his  connection  with  the 
Revised  Statutes  of  1836.  The  importance  of  the  work  to  the 
public,  and  the  value  of  its  preparation  to  him  as  a  lawyer, 
will  appear  from  'the  statement  that  up  to  that  time  the  written 
laws  of  North  Carolina  could  be  authoritatively  ascertained  only 
exploring  the  vast  British  Statutes  at  large,  as  well  as  the  Acts 
of  our  General  Assembly,  whilst  after  the  three  years'  labors  of 
the  Commissioners  had  ended,  that  same  law  was  to  be  found  in 
a  single  octavo  volume  of  some  700  pages.  The  change  from 
the  perplexing  and  unsatisfactory  researches  amongst  black-letter 
type  and  scattered  volumes  of  State  laws  to  the  abbreviated 
form,  clear  arrangement  and  beautiful  typography  of  the  Re- 
vised Statutes  must  have  been  felt  by  the  Bar  of  that  time  as  an 
escape  superas  ad  auras. 

In  illustration  of  the  principle  already  mentioned  as  charac- 
terizing his  progress,  Mr.  Battle,  in  the  year  1840,  was  appointed 
by  Governor  Dudley  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Superior  Court, 
and  in  1848,  by  Governor  Graham,  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  This  latter  appointment,  however,  was  not  rendered 
permanent  by  election  until  1852,  when  he  wras  chosen  by  the 
Legislature  to  succeed  that  profound  jurist,  Chief  Justice  Ruffin. 
In  one  or  other  capacity — as  counsel,  Reporter  or  Judge — Mr. 
Battle's  name  occurs,  during  forty-two  years,  in  fifty-six  volumes 
of  our  Reports;  for  a  longer  period,  therefore,  as  I  suppose,  than 
that  of  any  other  lawyer.  His  judgments,  as  member  of  the 
Supreme  Bench,  are  to  be  found  in  twenty-one  volumes. 

There  is  very  little  in  the  ordinary  course  of  action  by  a 
Judge  that  interests  the  general  public.  The  keen  interest  in 
such  action  taken  by  litigants,  and  the  extraordinary  attention 
that  it  receives  from  the  Bar,  are  fairly  balanced  beyond  that 
narrow  circle  by  indifference  and  even  aversion.  I  do  not  recol- 
lect that  Mr.  Battle,  as  member  of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  ever 


30 


required  to  take  part  in  any  matter  of  historical  importance  or 
of  dramatic  interest.  I  have  already  said  that  his  peculiar 
qualifications  for  the  place  consisted  in  an  extraordinary  famili- 
arity with  the  course  of  the  law  in  North  Carolina,  whether 
written  or  unwritten,  together  with  the  confidence  generally  in- 
spired by  his  equanimity,  soundness  of  judgment  and  total  free- 
dom from  sinister  influence.  The  very  great  value  of  such  a 
Judge  is  in  the  consultation  room,  and  at  the  vote.  Lawyers  may 
recognize  the  characteristics  of  Mr.  Battle  in  his  opinions,  which 
are  clear,  accurate,  brief  and  unpretending,  and  have  a  profes- 
sional way  of  handling  questions;  but  they  will  probably  place 
his  special  merits  in  what  is  inferred  to  have  been  the  part  played 
by  a  man  of  his  natural  and  acquired  endowments,  in  directing 
the  general  practical  conclusions  reached  by  the  Court  whilst  he 
was  a  member.  How  valuable  and  how  far  from  universal  a 
quality  this  is,  none  know  so  well,  I  venture  to  believe,  as 
lawyers  in  full  practice.  It  is  very  important  and  not  always 
certain  that  brilliant  speculations  upon  the  Bench  shall  be  prem- 
ises for  correct  decisions  between  the  particular  litigants.  It  is 
one  of  the  scandals  of  the  profession  that  arguments  which  have 
adorned  and  even  advanced  the  science  of  law  have  not  seldom 
been  delivered  in  cases  in  which  they  were  impertinent  to  the 
real  question,  or  prefaced  a  decision  against  the  very  rights  of 
the  matter.  Two  of  the  most  celebrated  constitutional  judg- 
ments of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  fall  under  the 
former  category,  whilst  the  latter  finds  illustrations  probably  in 
every  series  of  Reports: 

A  jeu  cVesprit  of  a  late  English  Judge  represents  one  of  his 
predecessors  as  meeting  in  the  Elysian  Shades  a  number  of 
people  whose  names  are  famous  among  lawyers  in  connection 
with  important  leading  cases;  such  as  Messrs.  Crogate,  Shelley 
and  Twyne.  The  general  complaint  of  these  persons  was  that 
the  merits  of  their  cases  had  been  entirely  lost  sight  of  by  the 
Courts,  amidst  an  enthusiasm  in  working  out  some  legal  prin- 
ciple! Mr.  Crogate,  in  particular,  could  not  be  appeased,  al- 
though his  learned  interviewer  assured  him  that  his  name  had 
become  inseparably  connected  with  the  doctrine  de  injuria — that  the 


31 


decision  was  a  most  sound  one,  had  been  admirably  reported  by 
Sir  Edward  Coke,  and  had  given  the  rule  to  countless  decisions 
since — for  the  unhappy  man  protested,  that  he  did  not  care  what 
u  resolutions"  the  Judges  had  made,  but  knew  one  that  he  had,  made 
himself,  and  that  was  never  to  go  to  law  again,  although  that  had 
been  too  late,  as  his  beasts  had  been  sold  to  pay  the  lawyers'  bills, 
and  he  ruined.  No  doubt  in  such  cases  the  fault  often  lies  in  the 
technical  system  administered,  and  not  in  the  Court,  and  such 
probably  was  the  cause  of  Mr.  Crogate's  particular  misfortune ; 
but  at  other  times  the  failure  is  due,  not  to  the  system,  but  to 
want  of  sobriety  of  judgment  and  common  sense  in  the  Court. 
It  may  well  be  claimed  by  Mr.  Battle,  shat  his  faculties  were 
admirably  fitted  to  secure  what  should  be  the  great  glory  of 
a  Court — correct  adjudications  upon  the  merits  of  whatever  eases 
came  before  him. 

Following  the  example  of  his  own  teacher  as  well  as  that  of  many 
other  eminent  Judges,  Mr.  Battle  was  also  for  many  years  an  in- 
structor in  law — before,  as  well  as  after,  he  came  to  the  head  of 
that  department  in  this  Institution.  In  this  respect  he  was  kind, 
attentive,  patient  and  successful.  His  pupils  have  done  him  great 
credit.  Without  mentioning  other  names,  I  may  be  allowed  to 
instance  those  of  both  of  our  Senators  in  Congress  and  the  present 
Representatives  in  Congress  from  this  and  an  adjoining  district. 

No  sketch  of  our  brother  would  be  complete  that  failed  to 
speak  of  his  domestic  relations.  In  these  he  was  singularly 
happy.  Providence  smiled  upon  the  choice  dictated  by  his 
youthful  fancy,  and  he  might  have  appropriated  Mcintosh's 
celebrated  eulogy  upon  his  wife,  or  better  still,  that  of  Words- 
worth : — 

The  reason  firm,  the  temperate  will, 
Endurance,  foresight,  strength  and  skill ; 
A  perfect  woman,  nobly  planned 
To  warn,  to  comfort  and  command. 

I  avail  myself  the  more  readily  of  an  opportunity  of  men- 
tioning this  beloved  lady  because  the  course  of  our  business  and 
celebrations  here  have  a  natural  tendency  to  give  an  undue  promi- 
nence to  virtues  displayed  by  members  of  the  other  sex.  Mr. 
Battle  owed  it  to  his  wife,  as  most  men  in  like  case  do,  that  his 


32 


children  developed  into  interesting  and  attractive  young  persons 
— the  survivors  amongst  them  taking  distinguished  position 
amongst  the  men  of  influence  and  usefulness  in  the  communitv. 
As  we  contemplate  the  present  scene,  and  observe  what  has  been 
so  well  and  successfully  done  towards  reviving  the  University, 
and  the  manner  in  which  its  prospects  brighten  from  one  day  to 
another,  let  us  not  forget  how  much  it  may  be  due  to  inspirations 
imparted  and  cherished  by  this  most  excellent  North  Carolina 
woman. 

Mr.  Battle  was  a  religious  man.  He  lived  in  constant  prac- 
tical recognition  of  his  obligations  to  God.  Warmly  attached 
to  his  Church,  and  regular  in  attendance  upon  her  offices  and  the 
sessions  of  her  courts,  he  magnified  his  profession  by  a  state  of 
perfect  charity  towards  all  shades  of  opinion,  desiring,  with  Ben 
Aclhern,  the  angels  to  write  him  as  one  that  loved  his  fellow-men  ! 
This  trait  led  him  greatly  to  enjoy  social  intercourse,  the  pleas- 
ures of  which  he  enhanced  by  cordiality,  well-bred  simplicity  of 
manner,  modesty  and  good  humor.  The  anecdotes  with  which 
he  enlivened  and  illustrated  conversation  were  always  innocent, 
and  at  any  time  of  his  life  his  blushes  and  confusion  upon  the 
introduction  of  a  broad  story  or  allusion  indicated  the  extent  of 
his  purity  and  sensitiveness. 

1  need  only  add  that  our  brother  was  for  about  forty  years  a 
most  valuable  Trustee  of  this  Institution.  During  the  twenty- 
five  years  for  which,  in  the  administration  of  President  Swain, 
he  resided  at  this  place,  he  was  the  intimate  personal  and  official 
friend  of  that  gentleman.  They  were  a  great  deal  together,  at 
their  respective  houses  or  out  in  the  open  air.  Former  students 
and  residents  of  Chapel  Hill  will  readily  recall  the  picture  pre- 
sented by  the  tall  and  peculiar  person  of  the  President,  and  the 
small  symmetrical  figure  of  the  Judge  traversing  together,  hand 
jjassibus  cequis,  the  paths,  fields  or  high  open  woods  in  the  en- 
virons of  the  University. 


Date  Due 


;  r~r^ 

AUG|6 

i&hj)ecl6g 


Form  335— 35M— 9-34— C.  P.  Co. 


.  N^C.  S75.6  Z99C  1860-79  v.  1  Ncs. 
'.  ''  '  1-21  P25£86 


•HIS  VOLUME  T>OSS  CIHCOLAT* 


